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Dose Optimization to Minimize Radiation Risk for Children Undergoing CT and Nuclear Medicine Imaging Is Misguided and Detrimental

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Dose Optimization to Minimize Radiation Risk for Children Undergoing CT and Nuclear Medicine Imaging Is Misguided and Detrimental ISSUES AND CONTROVERSIES Dose Optimization to Minimize Radiation Risk for Children Undergoing CT and Nuclear Medicine Imaging Is Misguided and Detrimental Jeffry A. Siegel1, Bill Sacks2, Charles W. Pennington3, and James S. Welsh4 1Nuclear Physics Enterprises, Marlton, New Jersey; 2U.S. Food and Drug Administration (retired), Green Valley, Arizona; 3NAC International (retired), Norcross, Georgia; and 4Department of Radiation Oncology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University, Maywood, Illinois for “Radiation Dose Optimization in Pediatric Nuclear Medicine” A debate exists within the medical community on whether the linear advertises 13 presentations on radiation risk in children, absorbed no-threshold model of ionizing radiation exposure accurately dose estimation, dose reduction, and radiopharmaceutical guidelines. predicts the subsequent incidence of radiogenic cancer. In this This seminar will focus on communicating a risk that is, in fact, article, we evaluate evidence refuting the linear no-threshold model fictitious; on emphasizing a dose reduction that is, consequently, and corollary efforts to reduce radiation exposure from CT and needless; on achieving a resulting dose estimation enhancement that nuclear medicine imaging in accord with the as-low-as-reasonably- is superfluous; and on improving activity-administration guidelines. achievable principle, particularly for children. Further, we review studies demonstrating that children are not, in fact, more radiosen- The underlying intent of lowering future cancer risk, although desir- sitive than adults in the radiologic imaging dose range, rendering able, goes astray, as the premise is based on the erroneous LNT and dose reduction for children unjustifiable and counterproductive. the resulting as-low-as-reasonably-achievable principle (ALARA). Efforts to minimize nonexistent risks are futile and a major source of The seminar further aims at procedure standardization in pediatric persistent radiophobia. Radiophobia is detrimental to patients and nuclear medicine, with which we have no quarrel. Although more parents, induces stress, and leads to suboptimal image quality and accurate dosimetry can improve guidelines for radiopharmaceutical avoidance of imaging, thus increasing misdiagnoses and conse- activity administration and is a reasonable pathway to optimization quent harm while offering no compensating benefits. of image quality, it is wholly misguided for radiation protection Key Words: radiological imaging; linear no-threshold; ALARA; dose purposes. optimization; radiophobia; children LNT and its corollary, ALARA—which are based on a link J Nucl Med 2017; 58:865–868 between absorbed radiation (no matter how low the dose or dose DOI: 10.2967/jnumed.117.195263 rate) and future cancer probability—are defended despite their proponents’ disarming admission that because of the low-dose- radiation signal-to-noise problem, there is no evidence, nor can there be any, favoring LNT for low doses. Proponents often defend their reliance on LNT on the grounds that even if there is a dose There is a great divide over exposure to low-dose radiation. threshold below which there is no harm, LNT’s consequent over- Ionizing radiation is thought by many to cause cancer, based on estimation of harm errs on the side of caution. Seemingly sound, uncritical acceptance of the linear no-threshold model (LNT) de- this application of the precautionary principle ignores empiric spite absence of valid evidence for doses below 100–200 mGy (1). low-dose-radiation research while offering no refutation, as well Moreover, the LNT extrapolation from high- to low-dose radiation as denying responsibility for the radiophobia, with its attendant has proven empirically false and decidedly harmful to millions of harms, generated by LNT and the concomitant result that patients people with respect both to medicine and to government policies are deprived of the probable cancer-inhibiting effects of low-dose regarding nuclear power plants (1–4). Herein, we argue that low- radiation (1,4). dose and low–dose-rate radiation does not cause—but in most The precautionary principle is useful only if action to control people helps prevent—cancer, as shown by sound, empiric, exper- the feared agent has no, or less harmful, side effects. However, for imental and observational studies. We also briefly summarize the radiologic imaging, the negative consequences of radiophobia- research showing the falsehood of LNT and its detrimental con- based dose reduction exceed the putative harms of radiation. sequences. These consequences include misdiagnosis due to both imaging This article was prompted by an all-day categoric seminar that will avoidance and nondiagnostic image quality, as well as use of take place this month at the SNMMI annual meeting. The program alternative imaging procedures, such as longer-duration MRI studies, that have a higher sedation risk for children, as we have reported (1). The harmful consequence of misdiagnosis—the need Received Apr. 24, 2017; accepted Apr. 24, 2017. For correspondence contact: Jeffry A. Siegel, Nuclear Physics Enterprises, to resort to exploratory surgical alternatives—is greater than the 4 Wedgewood Dr., Marlton, NJ 08053. LNT-based fictitious prediction of harm and more immediate than E-mail: [email protected] Published online May 11, 2017. any future cancer risk that is putatively avoided by ALARA dose- COPYRIGHT © 2017 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. reduction strategies (5). MISGUIDED PEDIATRIC DOSE OPTIMIZATION • Siegel et al. 865 A worldwide movement has arisen in response to the scientif- stimulate the immune system to reduce cancer rates (9). Fahey ically unsupportable call to decrease dose. We concentrate here on et al., nevertheless, claim it is prudent to strive for optimal ad- the pediatric CT and nuclear medicine dose “optimization” efforts ministered activity in children by using a patient-size–related generated by the Image Gently Alliance for children, a more so- dose, defining optimal as the lowest dose that still provides the cially and medically vulnerable population. The efforts aim not diagnostic information necessary for proper care (10). Although only at improving diagnostic quality, a laudable objective, but also an insufficient dose has resulted in nondiagnostic studies, this at lowering the fictitious risk of future cancer. Recognizing the trade-off ignoring the body’s proven defensive responses is antagonism between these contradictory objectives, Dr. Donald thought to be necessary. Frush, chair of the Image Gently Alliance, states that the Alliance As with the study of Preston et al. (8), much of the current seeks to provide balance between them, yet he disclaims any re- thinking about the risks of ionizing radiation is based on certain sponsibility of the Alliance for the media-driven radiophobia (6). interpretations of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki life-span study. As we Reasonable as this aim might be if, in fact, there were a risk of have reported (1), these data, properly interpreted, invalidate LNT. cancer from CT or nuclear medicine imaging, balance between Supportively, the French Academy of Sciences (11) reported that diagnostic benefit and cancer risk can no longer claim innocence these data provide evidence for protective, adaptive responses and in the absence of such risk. Balance between truth and falsehood is no valid evidence for harm below 100 mGy. Despite this contrary no balance at all. evidence, report VII from the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on the Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation (BEIR CHILDREN ARE NOT MORE RADIOSENSITIVE THAN ADULTS committee) (12) still endorsed LNT for solid cancers and, further, attributed a risk 2–3 times higher in children. Unaware perhaps of The focus on children is founded on their social vulnerability and the BEIR committee’s distortion of its own cited data, most radi- on a false biologic assertion that children are more radiosensitive ologists and nuclear physicians look to this widely regarded voice than adults. This assertion is based both on an indisputable fact and of authority. Indeed, we have found and revealed BEIR VII’s on a false assumption: the fact that more rapid cell division leads to egregious misquoting of one of its chosen sources that actually greater mutation opportunities, and the assumption that increased came to the opposite conclusion, in line with our contention (4). mutations entail increased cancer risk. But, like LNT itself, the as- sumption ignores evidence-supported adaptive responses that either VOICES OF “AUTHORITY” DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD repair mutations through enhanced repair enzymes or remove the unrepaired cells by apoptosis or, most importantly, the immune Unfortunately, many imaging professionals do not read scien- system (1,3,7). In the absence of these evolution-provided naturally tific literature critically. For their understanding of LNT, ALARA, selected defenses, the far more frequent (by about a million-to-one) and dose optimization, they rely on “expert” opinion, as offered in endogenous mutations in almost every cell—due to reactive oxygen reports by the BEIR committee, the International Commission on species from normal metabolism—would produce cancer minute Radiological Protection, the National Council on Radiation Pro- by minute. Mutations or epigenetic changes are necessary, but not tection and Measurements, and others that mutually reinforce each sufficient, to produce clinical cancer. other. Further, many investigators
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